Tuesday, November 3, 2009

All about Reuben


Signing pumpkin with pneumonia

Reuben, 3 days after the start of his treatment for pneumonia and on sparkling form today, back at UCLA School, signing away at circle time, excelling in his developmental assessment with his occupational therapist and beyond excited with his speech therapist this evening, saying words such as apple, car, baby, dog and flower.

Looking back to last week, Reuben had an assessment at UCLA school. Entering the small office of Dr L, he looked ominously at the small orange blocks that he was supposed to stack at that moment, just because the Dr told him to. And in true Reuben, defiant style, he was having none of it. The Dr asked "Can he put blocks into a bucket?" which made me smile to myself and I thought, well, Reuben, let's show him what you can do and, speaking softly into his left ear, I say "Reuben, can you count the blocks?" (Kristi: we learnt this task from you, with thanks), and Reuben dutifully, because he'll do anything for his mama, starts to count in sign 1, 2, 3, 4, 5..., placing his signing fingers on the little orange blocks in turn before him. "And if you ask me nicely, Dr L, I'll count to 25 in sign for you too?"

"Can you point to the boy's eyes?" continues Dr L and Reuben takes my index finger and points to the boy's eyes in turn.

"What is this?" he says, pointing to a bird, and Reuben takes my fingers and makes the sign for bird.

Can you put the red circle in the hole and Reuben, with a side smirk, tries to put it in the red square hole.

We all laugh of course whilst Reuben is thinking. I can play you too, Dr Loo!

On reflection, I wonder how many typical kids are asked to perform to cues. I truly understand the importance of these assessments, but we do need to give our kids a little bit of creative leverage too...

3 comments:

Oberon SarahB-H said...

:-)

Unknown said...

:)it is funny how they asses them on these things would they asses normal kids hmmm ur rite anyway that pic is jstu wonderful i love his golden hair and ehs getting so big i jsut wanna stop time right now

Nurse Kristina said...

THAT is the most beautiful face I have ever seen! Absolutely beautiful.

He's perfect both inside and out. Good work, Mama and Daddy!